Return of the Calamity-Class Death Knight

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Chapter 279: The Demon (5)

***

Vahel watched with trembling eyes as the barrier crumbled.

It was a barrier that imprisoned the most powerful of the Five Great Elders, Cheongyeum. It had been forged by sacrificing half the power of a clone. And now, it was crumbling like a sandcastle.

“A demon cannot defy a being of higher rank…” Vahel muttered, his face blank. “For power of a lower order cannot oppose power of a higher order…”

It was thanks to this principle that Vahel could enjoy absolute power in Inferno. There was no power that could stand against a Duke class demon like him.

In other words, the power that Damien was wielding was far superior to Vahel’s.

“I wasn’t wrong! The power you possess is real! It’s the true power of the kings! How could a mere human…”

“What are you babbling about?”

Cheongyeum took a deep breath, drawing in divine power. Blue flames enveloped his body.

“You still haven’t come to your senses, have you? Let me wake you up.”

An explosion erupted behind Cheongyeum. The next instant, his fist connected with Vahel’s face.

“!”

With a sound like a bursting eardrum, Vahel’s body was sent flying. He bounced off the ground several times like a skipping stone.

Vahel quickly got back to his feet. One side of his face was cracked.

“Hahaha! As expected, you’re amazing! It was a wise decision to imprison you!”

Vahel laughed loudly. Cheongyeum dusted off his fists and said.

“I was aiming for a one-hit knockout. You’re tougher than I thought.”

“Your fist is pretty tough too.”

“Then I’ll beat you until you break.”

Another explosion occurred. Vahel immediately manifested his power. Multiple layers of barriers blocked his front.

“You’re incredibly fast, but you can only move in a straight line, right?”

Vahel shouted, as if he had already figured it out.

As he said, Cheongyeum was known for his fast attacks, but he could only move in a straight line.

Then, another explosion occurred.

Cheongyeum disappeared. He had changed direction in the middle of his straight-line dash.

Vahel quickly shifted his gaze to follow Cheongyeum. Cheongyeum then accelerated with another explosion.

Explosions occurred all around. Afterimages of Cheongyeum filled Vahel’s surroundings.

“This speed…”

The smile disappeared from Vahel’s face. He finally realized it.

That the simplicity of his direction was not a problem for Cheongyeum at all.

“In that case, I’ll have to focus on attacking instead of defending, won’t I?”

“Countless thin, rectangular pillars shot up from the ground where Vahel stood. They looked like spears meant to block a cavalry charge.”

‘If I’m not careful, I could be pierced all over and die…’

In that instant, Cheongyeum’s afterimage abruptly ended.

Simultaneously, the rectangular pillars that Vahel had created were all shattered.

Cheongyeum burst through the pillars and swung his fist. His fist connected with Vahel’s face once more.

With a sound like shattering pottery, half of Vahel’s face was blown away. His left eye and part of his head scattered into fragments.

“Kuaaak!”

Vahel let out a scream. As if unable to bear it, he covered the wound with his hand.

But Cheongyeum’s attacks didn’t stop there.

Blue explosions occurred in rapid succession. Each time, Cheongyeum, appearing from all directions, pummeled Vahel’s body.

He struck Vahel’s side with his fist, jabbed his solar plexus with his elbow, and even pierced his chest with his knee.

Hundreds of attacks were delivered in the blink of an eye.

“Ak! Uhg! Ahh!”

With each attack, more and more of Vahel’s body was chipped away.

“What an incredible sight.”

Damien observed from afar as Vahel was helplessly beaten.

The moment Cheongyeum had intervened, there was nothing left for him to do. All he could do was watch from a distance.

“Isn’t it?”

He asked Radiant Light.

Having been freed from isolation, she was also looking straight ahead.

“Even though we’re both Five Great Elders, when I look at him, I feel like there’s an unsurpassable gap between us.”

It was unavoidable.

No matter how strong the Four of the Five Great Elders were, they were merely Master Class.

But Cheongyeum had reached the Grandmaster Realm.

As far as Damien knew, there were only four individuals who had reached the Grandmaster Realm at this point in time: the Imperial Supreme Sword, the Mercenary King, Cheongyeum, and the head of Pandemonium.

[PR/N- Wait! Didn’t the author mention the Sword Saint also being grandmaster somewhere?]

A Grandmaster was a being who could even contend with a fully summoned Marquis class demon.

Even a clone of Duke class demon couldn’t do anything about a Grandmaster.

That was why Vahel had resorted to imprisoning Cheongyeum using his power.

“Ahahha!”

Then, Vahel burst out laughing loudly. More than half of his body was gone, but the smile on his face didn’t disappear.

“I guess I’ll have to change my tactics too?”

Darkness flowed out of Vahel’s body.

Damien could immediately tell what Vahel was trying to do.

He was planning to ‘isolate’ Cheongyeum’s senses, just like he had done to Damien.

‘A wrong judgment.’

Everything unfolded just as he had predicted.

Cheongyeum smashed Vahel’s darkness with his ‘Annihilation’. The darkness scattered and the power dissipated.

“…Huh?”

A question mark appeared on Vahel’s face. At that moment, Cheongyeum raised his fist and aurablade appeared around it.

“This is the end.”

Just as Radiant Light spoke those words, Cheongyeum’s aurablade pierced through Vahel’s torso.

Vahel looked down at the aurablade embedded in his chest with a surprised expression.

Cheongyeum pulled out his blade. Vahel stumbled back a few steps.

“Wow… you’re incredibly strong. Even though I’m here as a clone, I never thought I’d be so helpless against you.”

Even in this situation, Vahel never lost his smile.

“But I don’t understand,” he said. “You’re strong, but lacking. How could our ancestors have lost to such humans?”

“What are you babbling about?”

“Hahaha, I guess I talked too much.”

Vahel’s body slowly began to crumble. It was because the clone was completely destroyed and starting to return to Inferno.

“Get the fuck out and never again dirty the human lands.”

“That’s not possible, is it? After all, our demons have a long-cherished desire to reclaim the surface world.”

“Nonsense. This place was our land.”

At Cheongyeum’s rebuke, Vahel laughed silently. It was a reaction like he had heard a humorless joke.

“It’s a bit of a shame. There was something I wanted to confirm.”

Vahel’s gaze turned towards Damien. In that instant, he heard Vahel’s voice in his head.

– Damien, how did you acquire those Authorities?

Right now, Vahel was speaking through his soul. Because of that, the Five Great Elders couldn’t hear what Vahel was saying.

– Those are the Authorities of the Demon Kings. How can a mere human possess not one, but two of them in his body?

At those words, Damien couldn’t help but frown.

When Dorugo had implanted these Authorities into Damien, he had called it the powers of an Ancient God.

But the powers of the Demon Kings?

– You seem clueless. Keep it safe. I’ll come back someday to reclaim it.

After a while, Vahel’s body completely crumbled, and his voice was no longer heard.

***

“He was unsummoned?”

Dorugo muttered in a small voice as soon as he arrived in the laboratory.

Iota, who seemed to have supernatural hearing, asked with a puzzled expression.

“Mother, what are you talking about? The unsummoning time is still a long way off. Did someone destroy that monster?”

“I don’t know the exact details. But one thing’s for sure, he was unsummoned.”

As the summoner, he could sense the summon’s condition to some extent.

However, there was one thing he couldn’t understand.

“How could two of the Five Great Elders defeat Vahel?”

Since Cheongyeum was trapped, it meant that two of the Five Great Elders had faced Vahel.

But based on the abilities of the Five Great Elders that Dorugo knew, it was impossible for them to defeat Vahel so quickly.

“Didn’t he say that there was another man? Maybe the three of them did something.”

Iota said casually.

But Dorugo still had an unsatisfied expression.

“Mother, why are you like that? Is there something bothering you?”

“No, no…”

There was no reason for him to be bothered.

He had obtained the demonic mana containing the demonic power, just as he had originally intended.

“I just feel a strong sense of regret, as if I should have stayed there…”

At that moment, a headache hit him. Iota grabbed Dorugo’s head with both hands.

“Ugh.”

He had been getting headaches more frequently lately.

Whenever he got a headache, Dorugo gained new inspiration and knowledge.

But his thirst also grew. A sense of foreboding that he was forgetting something tormented Dorugo.

“Mother, does your head hurt again?”

“No, it’s fine now.”

Dorugo said so and placed a sphere on the table. It was filled with the demonic mana.

“I’ll be very busy to meet the schedule.”

Saying so, Dorugo looked at the large paper spread out on the table.

On the paper was written, ‘Plan to Assassinate the Imperial Supreme Sword.’

Staring at the sphere, Dorugo suddenly remembered another item he had received from Vahel.

Dorugo took out the half-key he had received from Vahel.

The old key was shining under the light of the lamp in the laboratory.

“What a fool. To give this to me?”

Dorugo opened a subspace. From within, he took out the other half of the key.

The two keys clung together as if they were magnets. And they turned into a complete key.

“You said something about unexpected things happening? What nonsense.”

Dorugo had clung to this miserable life for a long time for one reason- revenge.

Revenge against the Empire that had betrayed him and his lover.

To the humans who have forgotten who the true heroes are.

In order to get revenge, I fell to the filthiest place and crawled my way back up here.

But what if I summon demons for my revenge?

It would mean taking away my target for revenge. That was something I couldn’t tolerate.

“I will never use this key,” he muttered and shoved the key deep into the furthest corner of the subspace.

***

[PR/N- You either die a hero or live long enough to see yourself become the villain…

– Harvey Dent ]